


Threads of Fate

by ShadowNekoinaTardis



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: (not from the team but rather the unsub), Bisexual Spencer Reid, Blood, Canon-Typical Violence, Kidnapping, Nipple Piercings, Other, Set between season 1 and 2, Trans Character, Transphobia, gunshot wound, mentions of top surgery scars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:23:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21707416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowNekoinaTardis/pseuds/ShadowNekoinaTardis
Summary: The BAU gets a new Tech/BA and they’re slowly falling in love with Spencer Reid, however they get caught up in a tangled web when the unsub they are chasing kidnaps them and decides to take “fate” into their own hands.
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 15





	Threads of Fate

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been binging the first couple of seasons again and finally sat down to write a piece I’ve needed for a while. I know the style may be disorienting but I hope it makes for a tasteful action sequence. Rated Mature to be safe due to the nature of the violence in this fic.

When Alex woke up in an alley and somehow still had their phone in their pocket, they grinned. They were awake enough to call Spencer and leave a message that Garcia could do a GPS trace to find their location before they passed out again.

…

“Alex? Alex?”  
They tried to scoot up a little as they heard footsteps approaching. They coughed up a little blood before they could see Dr. Reid rushing toward them with a med kit. They tried to stand up but they could hear Spencer calling their name as he rushed forward to catch them.  
“No, Alex, sit.” Spencer said, dropping the kit to catch them before they fell forward.  
“Hey, hey, breathe Alex, breathe.” Dr. Reid said. “You could’ve done more damage to your wounds. I have no clue on how much blood you’ve lost since you made it out of there.”

They nodded and watched Spencer collect the med kit that had fallen onto the concrete. They knew he was check them for wounds when Dr. Reid put gloves on to check over the stitching. Alex tried to sit as calmly as they could while Dr. Reid began to pull out the red threads that had embedded themselves under their skin. Their shirt sleeve where the thread had been embedded had been cut off by the unsub when he’d captured them that morning.

“Technically it’s a red string of fate, not threads.” Dr. Reid muttered, more to himself than to Alex.  
Alex hissed a little as the thread was pulled from their shoulder.  
“This is not how I want to meet you outside of work Dr. Reid.” Alex responded, laughing lightly, “Not nearly being a murder victim of the unsub we were trying to chase.”  
A little more blood appeared on their chest as Reid when to work on trying to stop the blood.  
“But it’s poetic nonetheless.” They continued, watching Reid work to distract from the pain.

Spencer’s hands were soft and delicate as he tied off the suture. He tried to keep his hands from shaking as he worked along with tears from filling his eyes from how much pain Alex was in from the wounds. The anger that filled him made him want to go and find the man who had hurt his friend.

_/Earlier that month, Quantico/_

“Everyone if I may have your attention, this is Alexandre Russell, they are a new agent at the BAU and have been assigned to our team.” Agent Hotchner said.  
“Hi, I prefer Alex, in all honesty, and as Agent Hotchner said my pronouns are they/them. I hope that by working with you all will be a wonderful experience.”  
A tall brunet approached Alex first, “Hi, Alex, I’m Dr. Spencer Reid and my pronouns are he/him, if you have any questions feel free to ask.”  
Alex nodded and reached out to shake Dr. Reid’s hand, only to get rejected, “You’re the one withe the 3 PhD’s right?”  
“I am.”

They grinned, “Neat, I’m working on my first one actually, quantum physics, specifically black hole sound waves.”  
Dr. Reid’s face lit up, but before he could speak again another man spoke.  
“Derek Morgan,” Morgan stated.  
Alex gave the man a once over, “Ex-cop?”  
“Mmm-hmm…”  
Alex could almost feel the others watching them, “I’ll be doing more of the tech work than behavioral analysis with… Garcia?”  
“That’s me sweetheart.” A cheery blond woman responded.  
Alex nodded, “Ok. Nice to meet you all, where would my desk be?”  
Garcia led the way and Alex followed her into the tech zone.

…

“Did you know that the singular ‘they’ has been used since the early 14th century and was prominent in Shakespeare’s works?” Dr. Reid said on the plane flight to the murder site in Colorado.  
“I did actually,” Alex responded before going back to the book they were reading.

Everyone thought that since Reid and Alex were about a year apart that they would get along, but it seemed that Alex and Dr. Reid were at an impassé. Which everyone found strange because they both had a lot of similar hobbies and the fact that they both had completed college relatively early, although Alex had a nearly normal path compared to Spencer.

What everyone didn’t seem to notice was Alex’s crush on Spencer which they sometimes hid behind snippy comments and sarcasm. Most people couldn’t place it because of the lack of attention Alex sometimes seemed to give but other times they were extremely focused on the task at hand to the point that they forgot to take lunch breaks for a few days and stayed extra hours to work on the paperwork for the cases at hand.

They just thought that Alex was trying to make a good impression on the team so that they would be potentially promoted earlier than what was on track. The fact that they were also balancing the process of doing a PhD while also working in the tech division of the BAU had many people wondering exactly how much time Alex had for sleep.

_/Now, Alleyway/_

“Alex please focus on me, I know it hurts but if we get it out in one piece then you won’t have to worry about the skin having to be opened up further, and with you concussion it’s not good for you to sleep until we can get a trained professional to check on how bad it is, especially with how cold it is in this part of Denver.”

“It’s—it’s fine Spence… I just… hid my love too long and he just too advantage of that…”  
“Who, Alex? The unsub?”  
Alex nodded slowly.  
“Why didn’t you speak up earlier Alex? It could’ve helped.” Spencer whispered.

“I did… you guys didn’t listen…” they slurred out a little, trying to rub the blood off their face.  
Spencer raised his brow, thinking pensively, “You mean that statement you made about the tweed jackets and the broken sneakers for the profile?”

“Yeah, everyone just took at as a Doctor Who joke instead of the actual statement I was trying to make.”  
Spencer gripped Alex’s shoulder as he pulled out the final bit of thread, the brunet looked sad as if realizing his mistake all too late.

“Breathe, Alex, breathe.” he said as he took his tie off to stave the blood that was beginning to flow out and it needed a tourniquet to keep the BAU newbie from bleeding out in his lap.  
“Has anyone ever told you that your eyes are very pretty?” they asked.  
“No? Not really now that I think about it.”

Alex chuckled, coughing up a bit more blood.  
“Alex, did you get shot?”  
“...Maybe?” they said, thinking back to when they first made it to the alleyway. “yeah…”  
“May I open your shirt to check? It seems there’s blood covering you abdomen area and I want to make sure everything’s fine.”  
“Sure, just, uh, mind the scars alright? And uh, yes I like having my nipples pierced.”

Spencer blushed, “Uh… good to know Alex.”  
He unbuttoned the other’s white shirt and pulled the bloodied fabric away from the wound so that he could see the impact of the bullet.  
He gasped as he looked closer, “Alex… shit, this isn’t good.”  
“You...you called an ambi right?”  
Their chest rose and fell in short, tight contractions as they began to panic.  
“Yes, yes I did, it should be here shortly…” Spencer responded before calling Hotch and putting him on speaker phone.  
“Yes, Dr. Reid?”  
“Alex is near critical condition what’s the ETA of the ambulance?”  
“Three minutes, how bad is it?”

“They’ve been shot in the abdomen, and their shoulder has been sewn with red thread, the signature matches the unsub we’re after.”  
Hotch cursed, “I’ll send Morgan on his way. Have you managed to stop the bleeding?”  
“Of the arm yes, I’m working on patching their abdomen to the best of my ability.”

_/Two Weeks Earlier, at Quantico/_

“Hey Alex do you want to go out to lunch with us?” Morgan asked.  
“Um, I…” they looked lost between their paperwork and Morgan’s question.  
“Pretty boy’s coming.”  
They could almost see Spencer glaring at Morgan in the background.  
“Uh, sure I guess. Where exactly?”  
“A local Thai place.”  
Alex grinned. “Perfect.”

They headed out following behind Dr. Reid and watching for strange things out of the corner of their eyes.  
They’d already gotten a comment from Gideon when they’d finally met the man about their earrings because they were “unprofessional”. They’d just nodded and gotten clear ones to make them “disappear”, because apparently helix piercings were deemed “unprofessional” in their line of work but it wasn’t like they were going to be out in the field if they were working mainly with Garcia, right?

“So, Alex, what are you interested in?”  
“Hobby wise or…?”  
“Sure let’s start there.”  
“I write novelas in my spare time, mostly sci-fi or space opera type stuff. I have a pet cat, Melody, who’s three and very cranky. Uh, I paint sometimes?”  
They looked down at their shoes.  
“That’s actually really neat.” Dr. Reid said.  
Alex shook his head as he opened the menu.  
“It’s not really, the best I can do is the scenic paintings.”

Spencer looked at Alex and they just tried to curl inwards, knowing that the young man had picked up on their self deprecating comment.

They’d been off and on the Colorado “Strings of Fate” killer for a couple of weeks and had gotten to an impassé about the killer without a proper profile due to the unsub playing matchmaker as his fantasy/delusion which wasn’t following a typical pattern because normal unsubs wanted to have a “relationship” with their victims. Or it could’ve been an extreme jealousy angle that drove him to kill people that he knew would impact the “lover”.

Alex, of course, had tried to describe what they thought the killer was wearing but it had been taken as a _Doctor Who_ joke which they’d found extremely rude but they knew what they’d seen and continued to march forward at their own pace on the investigation. Then again, most of the team didn’t understand that Alex had already met the unsub once before during the initial investigation.

“I also enjoy pop punk, alternative, and grunge music. I tend to read classic Russian literature in my free time and have taken enough classes to read an updated copy in Russian.”  
They could almost hear Morgan snicker and Elle elbow him before the waiter came over to take their orders.

Alex shrugged and pulled out their sketchbook and went back to the drawing that they’d been working on when Morgan had interrupted earlier. It was a drawing from their childhood, before everything had changed and honestly they missed those days of innocence when they could just be free and play in the woods after school without having to worry about someone stealing them.

_/Now, Alleyway/_

“Shouldn’t you have taken a photo?”  
“Eidetic memory remember?”  
“Gods I wish I did.”  
“The amount of paperwork I’ll have to do for not taking photos though…”  
“Is worth it.” Alex responded before kissing Spencer.  
The brunet was shocked for a second before kissing back with passion before breaking it to allow Alex to breath.  
“Alex…”  
“Hush, just let me have this moment before anyone sees…”  
They could hear the ambulance approaching and Spencer pulled away to focus on keeping the blood from pooling in Alex’s lap. They were more into watching Spencer rather than having to deal with the pain they were going through.

…

Derek approached Spencer after they’d been loaded onto the stretcher in the ambulance.  
“Are they going to be alright?” Derek asked, looking Reid in the eyes.  
“I hope so… the unsub seems to have messed them up pretty badly and…”  
“Spencer I need you to breathe and focus on what they were telling you.”

“They knew the unsub, tried to explain it to us and we just took it as a joke… plus this unsub manipulates his victims by misgendering them and deadnaming them, while marking the victim with the name of their crush or lover… which is why Alex had my name embedded in their flesh with red thread… I can’t even imagine how much trauma that Alex has dealt with mentally.”

Derek nodded as he wrote it down on a notepad.  
An EMT approached, “Dr. Reid?”  
“Yes?”  
“Alex is requesting that you ride in the ambulance with them.”  
“Okay. Derek, I’ll call the team and catch them up once we get to the hospital, alright?”  
Derek grinned, “You got it pretty boy, now go protect Alex.”  
Spencer grinned before getting into the ambulance and holding Alex’s hand.  
“You’re lucky you go to the scene when you did. They’ve lost a substantial amount of blood.”  
“B+ I think,” Spencer responded, “that’s their blood type.”  
Alex nodded slowly before they passed out as the doors shut.

_/Three weeks ago, Quantico/_

Alex was sitting in their cubicle working on a painting while processing paperwork on their computer. They were painting a scene from a riverside park back home with the playground in the way back near a corn field. They sighed and put the paint brush back down as they could feel someone staring.

“Can I help you?” They asked, a tad sarcastic.  
“I can come back later if you need a moment.” Spencer said.  
“Oh! Sorry. What’d you want to ask?” Alex recognized who had asked the question and turned to look Spencer in the eye.  
“Are you sure? It’s about the case we’re working on.”  
“Mmm-hmm, spin it on me, Spence.”  
Spencer seemed to be distracted by what Alex said. “Oh, it's the profile for the unsub. I wanted you to look it over before I give it to Hotch.”  
“And?”

“This line about the clothing description seems a lot like the Doctor from Doctor Who, are you trying to play a joke or something Alex?”  
“No, I’m being serious.” Alex looked Spencer dead in the eyes.  
Spencer nodded, “They’re not going to believe you unless you have more evidence…”  
“A statement isn’t enough anymore?” Alex spat out bitterly and cringed when they saw Spencer flinched in response.  
Spencer didn’t seem to process the underlying message that Alex had said before leaving the blond to finish their painting.  
Alex sighed and rested their head on the desk.

“Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.” they repeated under their breath, “You really fucked it up this time Alex. How is he going to trust you now? He certainly doesn’t know about the long standing crush you’ve held on him since you saw him speak at a seminar a few years back for one of his PhDs...fuck.”

They pulled at their hair before tucking it into a small bun and headed to the gun range for a round or two to try and calm down before the meeting with Hotch that would certainly be later that day. They breathed in slowly before opening the door.

_/Now, Hospital in Denver/_

Alex woke up in the ICU with Spencer holding their hand. They looked around before processing what had happened to them.  
“Does everyone know?”  
“Hotch is explaining the situation at the moment. I think there’s debate of whether you’ll be able to be out in the field or not to help finish this off.”  
Alex sighed, “Of course. Has Hotch apologized yet?”  
“I think he was coming by in a little bit to apologize for not listening earlier.”  
“Has the addition of the description helped any?”  
“It’s allowed Hotch and Gideon to rule out some potential suspects…”  
“You know we could do the voice test again if they collected enough of the men off the street.”

Spencer sighed. “Do you remember a signature type phrase he used?”  
“Do you like it _darling_? Oh honey you look _divine_ like that.”  
The poison that dripped out of Alex’s voice caused Spencer to cringe in sympathy but nod as he wrote the lines down on the file he had in his hand.  
“Hotch!” he said.  
The man entered the room and took the file.  
“Thanks Alex, I’m sorry I didn’t listen earlier but this will be very helpful in narrowing down suspects.”  
Alex nodded before falling asleep again.

_/A day before, location: unknown/_

Alex woke up in room they didn’t recognize and started to panic when they couldn’t move their arms or legs. They could smell leather polish and blood. They could also hear someone walking around, most likely the unsub they had been chasing for nearly a month now. They couldn’t see because of the fabric in front of their eyes and the leather that covered it. 

So when they felt the unsub pull them off the ground they tried to scream but couldn’t. They fell limp like a rag doll when the man pulled off their shirt.  
“Oh, you’re one of those…” the man hissed into Alex’s ear.  
Alex tried to hit him in the head, but the man held their head so they couldn’t.  
“You didn’t like your chest did you, sweetie?” the man continued, running his knife against Alex’s top surgery scars. 

Alex hissed when they felt the blood well up on their skin. They knew exactly where the man was staring at him and it drove them nuts. Spencer probably hadn’t noticed that they were missing yet because it “hadn’t been twenty four hours” yet as Hotch tended to phrase it. Besides everyone was doing recon and they didn’t need to check in for another four hours. They nearly spat out the gag when the man pulled at their hair. It wasn’t long by any means but it wasn’t short either. 

“Do you like it _darling_? Oh honey you look _divine_ like that.” the man said, voice dripping with sultry sarcasm. 

Alex remember that their chest was bare meaning that the man could see the other scars they had yet the man was focused on their shoulder. They were definitely in the room with the “Strings of Fate” killer and that scared them, because that meant that they had been watched for more than a couple of days without even being aware of it happening. Alex was torn away from their thoughts as they screamed against the gag when the needle pierced their skin and the man began threading Spencer’s name into the exposed flesh. They tried to crawl away from the man but the ropes pulled them back. 

Alex began to cry under the blindfold as the man proceeded to get up to inspect his “masterpiece”. 

… 

When Alex finally made it out of the unsub’s “basement dungeon” they breathed a sigh of relief before the pain kicked in and they realized how much damage the unsub had caused. They remembered getting shot once before Alex had passed out the last time. The fact that they’d managed to get out of the hand trap the man had created was a miracle in itself because it had been complicated to get the knife out of their back pocket once he’d gotten bored “playing” with Alex.

_/30 minutes before now, Hospital/_

Alex awoke in a sterile white bed and saw Spencer waiting in a chair next to them.  
“Spencer…” Alex reached out for the young man.  
The brunet clasped their hands, “I was so worried you weren’t going to make it. The doctors had some complications removing the bullet, but the main bad news is the permanent scarring that will most likely occur.”  
“Hug me, please.” Alex whispered.  
Spencer got up and hugged them and Alex clinged so much that Spencer scooted into the hospital bed with them. Spencer heard the door open before Alex did but it was only Hotch. 

“I can come back later if Alex is still tired?”  
“I’m fine. What’s the situation?”  
“The partial print they were able to get from the alleyway came back positive.”  
“And?”  
“It’s a suspect we already interrogated earlier.”  
“Well that’s good isn’t it?” Alex stopped coughing a bit before continuing. “Unless… he’s already left the area?”  
Hotch nodded solemnly.  
Alex cussed and released Spencer’s hands so they wouldn’t clench them tightly.  
“But we’ve already sent out an APB to hopefully locate his car. We’ve also been making house visits to find the tourture dungeon that you mentioned earlier Alex.” 

Alex nodded, “Hopefully we’ll be able to catch him and get him in jail before he gets across state lines.”  
They coughed and clutched their chest because of their bruised ribs, Spencer reached back out to hold Alex’s hand because they were trembling from the stress. They held onto Spencer as tightly as the man would allow them to. 

_/Three and a half weeks ago, Denver cafe/_

Alex watched as the snow fell in the small cafe they were camping out at. They sipped at their chai tea and looked at the paperwork in their hands while trying not to break position. A man entered the shop that matched the description that Hotch and Gideon had been putting together. Their skin crawled as they heard the man order and call the male barista “darling” in a sickly sweet tone. 

Alex wrote down the description on a notepad before putting their cap back on and focused on the computer next to them. They could feel the man staring at them as if the man was judging them. They tried to keep their breathing relaxed as the man left with his drink. This made them wonder if they should call Hotch and tell him their findings 

_/A couple days after the hospital, Spencer’s Apartment/_

Alex woke up screaming in Spencer’s bed and clutching the sheets in a death grip. They were sweating profusely and tried to slow their breathing down by looking around and noticed that Spencer was still asleep. Which was good, it’d be better to let the man sleep rather than make him worry. They got up to go pee and splash some cold water on their face before they looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand. It was three in the morning and it was the second night they’d been home from the hospital. 

Spencer had wanted to be able to watch over them to make sure they weren’t going to bust their stitches. They sighed and turned the sink on only to hear Spencer get up from the other room 

“Alex?”  
“Yeah?”  
“You okay in there?”  
“Define okay.”  
They heard Spencer chuckle before walking into the bathroom. 

“You had another nightmare didn’t you?” Spencer whispered before hugging them.  
Alex started to cry softly into Spencer’s nightshirt. “Yeah. I was back in the room and he’d taken off my shirt and he just…” Alex shuddered.  
Spencer held them, “He’s in jail, you’re safe with me Alex, remember that.”  
“I know that Spence, I just… my brain doesn’t understand that… the trauma isn’t easy to forget…”  
Spencer nodded and wiped away the tears running down Alex’s face.  
“Do you think you can make it back to sleep or should we go find one of those Rom-Coms you like?”  
Alex chuckled, “Yeah I think a movie would help distract my brain for a bit. Can we watch Legally Blonde again?”  
“Yeah, that sounds good.” 

Alex grinned and followed Spencer to the living room so they could fall asleep snuggled up on the couch. 

…

When they both woke up in the morning it wasn’t to the smell of coffee but rather the BAU calling them. Alex looked at Spencer before accepting the call.

“Hello?”  
“Hey Alex we arrested the dude and we need to do the voice test just to make sure. Especially since you mentioned you’d seen what you think is the “Strings of Fate” killer when you were in the café a couple of weeks ago.”  
Alex sighed and they could hear Hotch hum in agreement.  
“Yeah, I guess.” they looked over at Spencer.  
“Of course I’ll come dear.”  
Alex grinned and ended the call.  
“So, coffee?”  
“Of course my love.” 

They grinned and stood up before heading to the kitchen. Spencer wrapped his arms around Alex’s when he got to the kitchen while he watched Alex mix the double caff recipe.

**~Fin**


End file.
